Remove the two screws holding the butt plate on. You should see what looks like a big nut with a slot in it. Use a big flat screw driver to get that off, it can take some serious elbow grease if it hasn't been off recently. The stock should slide off once that is removed. From there you should be able to tell how the recoil spring comes out, it's fairly straightforward. I would just replace the spring since it's cheap. Wolff makes a good one for like $12.

Andy, Thanks for the great advise came apart just as you said. Tube and spring were a little dirty, cleaned them with action cleaner then wiped them down with a lite coat of gun lubricant. smooth as silk Thanks again alpenablackdog

When you have your stock off, I recomend replacing the action spring and other parts with the stainless kit available from Cabelas and others. Although I have several shotguns ( beretta, benelli, stoger, browning,mossberg, winchester,etc.) nothing is more reliable in cold weather than the Remington 11-87 and1100 series. I have a small farm in Saskatchewan where I spend about a month each year waterfowling. We have shot the remingtons for years with only minor problems. I attribute the reliability under adverse hunting conditions to replacing the action spring and magazine spring with stainless aftermarket parts.

I slotted screw can be a real bitch to loosen even with a big screwdriver solution get the socket with the big slotted srewdriver and put on a extension and use the rachet wrench to take it off The spring is only $10 and is sometimes tricky to get the pin in to hold the spring in place

Hey folks, I just bought a used 1100, my first autoloader. It's chambered for 3" mags but I was told I could adjust the recoil spring for 2 3/4" loads. Is this possible or do I need to get a recoil system for the lighter loads? And I assume that I can't use the 3" mags without switching back, is this correct?

The barrel porting is really what will determine how well an 1100 will cycle. The recoil springs are the same as far as I know between the magnum and non magnum guns. The magnum guns only have 1 gas port on the barrel though and the non magnum have 2.

Thanks for the info, Andy. Noone I've spoken to so far has mentioned the gas port. I've talked to guys at the clay range, they replaced a gasket, and a couple gun shops so I don't feel so bad not having known...lol! Do you know if adding another port is possible?

You can add an additional port to the 1100 3" barrel right next to the existing one. If you do it should shoot 2 3/4" loads easily. It will produce too much gas when shooting 3" loads and provide too much force on the action. You can tap the additional port to take a set screw when shooting 3" loads. The action bars and sleeve are supposed to be heavier on the 3" mag gun.

flyndutchman wrote:You can add an additional port to the 1100 3" barrel right next to the existing one. If you do it should shoot 2 3/4" loads easily. It will produce too much gas when shooting 3" loads and provide too much force on the action. You can tap the additional port to take a set screw when shooting 3" loads. The action bars and sleeve are supposed to be heavier on the 3" mag gun.

Good post. For my 1100 I have multiple barrels. A magnum 3" chambered barrel with a single gas port I use for duck hunting, a 28" fixed full choke trap barrel with 2 gas ports, and a 24" skeet barrel with 2 gas ports. I don't notice much difference in the way the gun handles with the 26 v the 28 v the 24 so when I am practicing with light target loads I use the skeet or trap barrel, never had an issue with cycling.